Been running SETI/BOINC for many years now, but just found something disturbing. I'm also a ham radio operator, and in order to make room in memory for my ham applications, I turn BOINC off. Or thought I did.

Got a small app named Game Booster that supposedly turns off unneccesary apps, including boincmgr.exe and boinctray.exe. It shows them turned off, yet I still see 100% CPU usage, same as when BOINC is running.

Next I right-clicked on the icon in the system tray and exited BOINC. Still see 100% CPU suage!

Lastly, using Task Manager, I ended the processes boincmgr.exe and boinctray.exe. That finally got BOINC to cease!

I have BOINC set to go idle if there is any outside input to the PC (mouse, keyboard, etc.) and to turn back on after one minute of no input. It appears that even with the program shut down, it still runs!!

Its not entirely normal; its a bug with the new v6.6.20 client. There have been a handful of posts here in Number Crunching discussing the issue.

You can try adding BOINC.EXE to the list of applications to kill if you want to stop BOINC from running. There's also another work-around discussed in one of those aforementioned threads here in NC.
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Been running SETI/BOINC for many years now, but just found something disturbing. I'm also a ham radio operator, and in order to make room in memory for my ham applications, I turn BOINC off. Or thought I did.

Got a small app named Game Booster that supposedly turns off unneccesary apps, including boincmgr.exe and boinctray.exe. It shows them turned off, yet I still see 100% CPU usage, same as when BOINC is running.

Next I right-clicked on the icon in the system tray and exited BOINC. Still see 100% CPU suage!

Lastly, using Task Manager, I ended the processes boincmgr.exe and boinctray.exe. That finally got BOINC to cease!

I have BOINC set to go idle if there is any outside input to the PC (mouse, keyboard, etc.) and to turn back on after one minute of no input. It appears that even with the program shut down, it still runs!!

Is this normal, or have I missed a setting somewhere?

Thanks
Dave

It is completely normal. You aren't shutting down BOINC, you're shutting down BOINC Manager.

It's also normal to see 100% computer usage, because the science applications are at very low priority, and they only get whatever is left after other apps run.

They should not affect applications running at higher priority -- I routinely run DIGIPAN with BOINC running on an Athlon XP 3000 without stopping BOINC.

... but if you want BOINC to stop processing, just right click on the BOINC Icon in the tray and pick "snooze." That tells BOINC to stop processing.

Been running SETI/BOINC for many years now, but just found something disturbing. I'm also a ham radio operator, and in order to make room in memory for my ham applications, I turn BOINC off. Or thought I did.

Got a small app named Game Booster that supposedly turns off unneccesary apps, including boincmgr.exe and boinctray.exe. It shows them turned off, yet I still see 100% CPU usage, same as when BOINC is running.

Next I right-clicked on the icon in the system tray and exited BOINC. Still see 100% CPU suage!

Lastly, using Task Manager, I ended the processes boincmgr.exe and boinctray.exe. That finally got BOINC to cease!

I have BOINC set to go idle if there is any outside input to the PC (mouse, keyboard, etc.) and to turn back on after one minute of no input. It appears that even with the program shut down, it still runs!!
You can also set up an exclusive application through cc_config.xml. When the application you set up this way is running, BOINC will stop processing.
Is this normal, or have I missed a setting somewhere?

Thanks
Dave

It is completely normal. You aren't shutting down BOINC, you're shutting down BOINC Manager.

It's also normal to see 100% computer usage, because the science applications are at very low priority, and they only get whatever is left after other apps run.

They should not affect applications running at higher priority -- I routinely run DIGIPAN with BOINC running on an Athlon XP 3000 without stopping BOINC.

... but if you want BOINC to stop processing, just right click on the BOINC Icon in the tray and pick "snooze." That tells BOINC to stop processing.

73 -- Ned

[edit]

I thought I had added this earlier.

There is an option in cc_config.xml that allows you to automatically stop BOINC when a selected program is running.
____________BOINC WIKI

In the BOINC manager you can also go to Advanced, Options, General, and check the box next to "enable manager exit dialog". The next time you click on exit to shut down BOINC from your comp tray an "exit confirmation" popup box will appear. Check the box next to "stop running science applications when exiting the manager" to stop BOINC from running in the background CPU usage.

If you have ample Ram to load aditional programs then you wont need to kill seti/BOINC. Remember that seti only runs on free CPU cycles. IF you are running other programs BOINC backs off.
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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Lastly, using Task Manager, I ended the processes boincmgr.exe and boinctray.exe. That finally got BOINC to cease!

I have BOINC set to go idle if there is any outside input to the PC (mouse, keyboard, etc.) and to turn back on after one minute of no input. It appears that even with the program shut down, it still runs!!

You stopped boinctray.exe

Now contrary to its name, it does not put the BOINC Manager icon in the system tray. BOINC manager will put the icon in the system tray when you minimize it.
Boinctray.exe is the idle detection program, it will constantly poll for keyboard taps and mouse movements. When you stop it from running, no more idle detection to check if you're busy and BOINC will run continuously. (I asked a long time ago if the developers could please change the name of this little app to boincidle.exe (or idletracker.exe) to make more sense. They chose to ignore the request. Perhaps that someone with more clout (JM7? ;-)) can try again).

When BOINC is installed in protected application execution mode, it is installed as a Windows service (Start->Run, type services.msc, click OK; if BOINC is in the list, it's a service installation). This means that when you exit BOINC Manager, that the client & the science applications will happily continue to run.
____________Jord

Lastly, using Task Manager, I ended the processes boincmgr.exe and boinctray.exe. That finally got BOINC to cease!

I have BOINC set to go idle if there is any outside input to the PC (mouse, keyboard, etc.) and to turn back on after one minute of no input. It appears that even with the program shut down, it still runs!!

You stopped boinctray.exe

Now contrary to its name, it does not put the BOINC Manager icon in the system tray. BOINC manager will put the icon in the system tray when you minimize it.
Boinctray.exe is the idle detection program, it will constantly poll for keyboard taps and mouse movements. When you stop it from running, no more idle detection to check if you're busy and BOINC will run continuously. (I asked a long time ago if the developers could please change the name of this little app to boincidle.exe (or idletracker.exe) to make more sense. They chose to ignore the request. Perhaps that someone with more clout (JM7? ;-)) can try again).

When BOINC is installed in protected application execution mode, it is installed as a Windows service (Start->Run, type services.msc, click OK; if BOINC is in the list, it's a service installation). This means that when you exit BOINC Manager, that the client & the science applications will happily continue to run.

Now contrary to its name, it does not put the BOINC Manager icon in the system tray. BOINC manager will put the icon in the system tray when you minimize it.
Boinctray.exe is the idle detection program, it will constantly poll for keyboard taps and mouse movements. When you stop it from running, no more idle detection to check if you're busy and BOINC will run continuously. (I asked a long time ago if the developers could please change the name of this little app to boincidle.exe (or idletracker.exe) to make more sense. They chose to ignore the request. Perhaps that someone with more clout (JM7? ;-)) can try again).

While I support the suggestion, this is one of those things that doesn't make a whole lot of difference in the grand scheme. It doesn't change the functionality, it is pretty cosmetic, and fairly deep.

... and it may add complexity to the installer, since updates would need to remove BOINCTRAY and add BOINCIDLE instead of just updating BOINCTRAY.

The installer has to be pretty thoroughly tested.

So, good suggestion, but likely to be way down the list of things to do, especially since it isn't "broken" per-se.

I have BOINC set to go idle if there is any outside input to the PC (mouse, keyboard, etc.) and to turn back on after one minute of no input. It appears that even with the program shut down, it still runs!!

Is this normal, or have I missed a setting somewhere?

Thanks
Dave

Someone asked in another thread why people abandon BOINC, and I just wanted to point out that our friend DOC has not posted since this message, and may not have seen any of the answers....

I don't have a solution, but I did want to mention the problem.
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